City people Mark Goff and Phillip Engel couldn't resist the extreme fixer-upper they found in California wine country. As our Renovation Diary series begins, the couple dive right in to their life-changing home renovation project. After years of shuttling between New York City and Los Angeles, Mark Goff and Phillip Engel wanted to change their location and their lives. They landed in the tiny town of Healdsburg, California (approximately 1.5 hours from San Francisco in Sonoma County Wine Country, population 11,254). The home they found there?an extreme fixer?was certainly transformative. The work they did on the 1870 Victorian turned the business analyst (Engel) and graphic designer (Goff) into seasoned renovation experts and tested their patience and skill. Running from now through October, for our second annual Renovation Diary, the pair describes the joy and the frustration of bringing the decrepit home back to life, a process Goff fully details in his blog, 227NorthStreet. Mark: It all started in Los Angeles, with a couple of self-described "old, show-biz broads" who lived across the street.
Phillip: On Christmas Eve in 2002, we were walking our dog and we saw them outside: Mimi Reed and Thareen Auroraa. At the time, Mimi was 89 and Thareen was 91. We waved and said hello, and they invited us for cocktails later. It was the first of many visits; as they would often call us around 4:35 p.m. to tell us "the bar is open!"

A chan...